Benoit Lorge’s Demo

I was wowed by this demo and now I know the sign of a real chocolatier: they can talk to a room full of chocoholics and temper at the same time! And kudos to the Temple Bar Cultural Trust for such a professional ticket design … I am keeping my ticket stub!

Benoit Lorge, originally from France now firmly installed in Kerry, had a bain marie on the go, huge marble slab, several 2.5kg bags of Valrhona chocolate, molds of all shapes and sizes and most importantly, a tilted mirror over the work area so everyone could see what was going on. Hmmm let me illustrate …

The demo was packed with loads of information presented in a easy-to-remember format. He ran thru cocoa bean types, the importance of tempering, cocoa origins all the while keeping bowls of chocolate stirred. He piped the molded sweets with a honey ganache and here’s the recipe. It will do approx 450 sweets ;-)

500ml cream

450g honey

500g Valrhona Jivara

500g Valrhona Carribe

Bring cream to the boil, stir in the honey, then pour over the chocolate.

Just like that :-) It tasted fabulous not least because of the excellent ingredients. Sur’ there was even a Valrhona sales rep present in case anyone need a few kgs.

The worktop after a very busy demo … I lost count of how many discs, truffles and bars he made. He made it look so easy and I know from messy experience that it isn’t. And there was no pretend tempering here … the finished truffles were shiny and crisp.

I thoroughly enjoyed this demo so much so that we went back today to watch again. HoneyB (after a good cry which was silenced by the chocolatier and some Valrhona!) sat watching too. She especially liked pouring all the chocolate onto the slab – I think it was the mess she liked.  She was probably thinking to herself ‘look, this guy making a mess and Mommie is not cross’ !

Ecole Chocolate Graduation

Yay! I got my Ecole Chocolat Certificate in the post today and Himself did a cheesy mock presentation of it to me too :-)

A Study in Fudge

In search of the perfect fudge recipe I tried out 5 and found a keeper! The fudge had to be economical to make, chocolate, smooth, firm and not too grainy.

1. Nigella’s fudge recipe using cranberries instead of pistachios (esp for HoneyB, my cranbaby). This texture was right but I am not sure it’s the most economical given that the ingredients are basically chocolate and condensed milk.

2. Again Nigella’s fudge recipe but with milk chocolate and roasted hazelnuts. Here the fudge was very soft giving it the nickname ‘fridge fudge’. I enrobed it in milk chocolate and it was lovely but not quite fudge. The problem here was that I should have increased the amount of milk chocolate by half to ensure it hardened.

3. Attempt three was pretty woeful (recipe). I did not let the fudge sit and crystallise for long enough, the result was a grainy, crumbly sugary mess.

 

4. Attempt four was getting more like a traditional fudge but I had no glucose syrup so I used golden syrup. This gave a soft mousse-like fudge with an overpowering syrupy taste.

5. Way-hay, here we go, attempt 4 but with glucose syrup purchased in the Cake Box, Dun Laoghaire. Warning: I burnt out my electric hand mixer with this recipe so if you have a Kitchen Aid or the like, then use it. If not, mix carefully and heed the smoke signals :-0

3/4 cup milk

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup glucose syrup

6 oz dark chocolate, finely chopped

2 tbsp butter, chopped

1 tsp vanilla

1. Bring the milk, sugar and glucose syrup to the boil over a medium heat, stirring to combine all ingredients. Brush down sides with a pastry brush to dipped in warm water to prevent crystallisation.

2. Remove from the heat and beat in the chocolate gradually, 1/3 at a time and stir until completely melted and smooth.

3. Return to the heat and continue cooking without stirring until fudge reaches 114°C.

4. Remove from the heat and pour the mixture into a bowl suitable for your mixer. Scatter the butter over the surface but do not mix. Leave until it reaches 43°C … never stir … be patient.

5. Add the vanilla and beat on medium speed until it becomes thick and loses its sheen (5 – 10 mins). It is at this stage I burnt out my electric hand mixer as the fudge is very thick. I would never have been able to beat by hand either.

6. Pour into a parchment lined 8″x8″ tin and allow to cool. Then cut into whatever shapes you like. I went with squares but they were rustic i.e. all different sizes. Store in an airtight container. It may help to warm the knife before cutting.

Fig Jam and Lime Cordial have some excellent photos of the process and an indepth description in this post.

Ecole Chocolat – All Finished

Yay! I’ve passed Ecole Chocolat’s Professional Chocolatier Program and my official certificate will be winging its way to me late August. Himself ’surprised’ me with a card and swanky new hand mixer to mark the occasion. I exhausted my old one making fudge but that’s another story.

Am I glad I did it? Yes I am. I was skeptical at the start that an on-line course could really teach me. I did learn, but it was through a combination of course material, course deadlines, more than 6-8 hrs a week work and endless researching. Having the course forced me to focus, having the assignments gave me goals to achieve within a certain time frame. Seeing the assignments of other students made me work harder to keep up.

It took longer than I thought for practice and I ended up taking the Flavor and Technique Stream which focused more on production and less on Setting up a Business. I was disappointed that I could not take the Business Stream especially since it would have guided me through marketing, operations and business plans. But, I started as a novice so I have come a long way … ‘Rome was not built in a day’ and I can study the business side on my own I’m sure.

The one invaluable resource was my on-line tutor. I had numerous email exchanges about fudge, tempering etc. I sent her photos of my disasters and she advised. There is a Chef’s Table where students can talk to each other and we were encouraged to share our assignments there. I found this very helpful because we could learn from each other.

You get out what you put into this course.

Yay! I’ve passed Ecole Chocolat’s Chocolatier Course and my official certificate will be winging its way to me late August. Himself ’surprised’ me with a card and swanky new hand mixer to mark the occasion. I exhausted my old one making fudge but that’s another story.

Am I glad I did it? Yes I am. I was skeptical at the start that online chocolatier’s course could really teach me. I did learn, but it was through a combination of course matierial, course deadlines, more than 6-8 hrs a week work and endless researching. Having the course forced me to focus, having the assignments gave me goals to achieve within a certain timeframe. Seeing the assignments of other students made me work harder to keep up.

It took longer than I thought for practice and study and I ended up taking the Flavor and Techniques Stream which focused more on production and less on Setting up a Business. I was disappointed that I could not take the Business Stream especially since it would have allowed me create marketing, operations and business plans. But, I started as a novice so I have come a long way … ‘Rome was not built in a day‘ and I can study the business side on my own I’m sure.

The one invaluable resource was my online tutor. I had numerous email exchanges about fudge, tempering etc. I sent her photos of my disasters and she advised. There is a Chef’s Table where students can talk to each other and we were encouraged to share our assignments there. I found this very helpful because we could learn from each other. Students where from all around the world, from all ages and backgrounds so I did not feel at a disadvantage just because I am a software enginner with a chocolate hobby.

You get out what you put into this courseYay! I’ve passed Ecole Chocolat’s Chocolatier Course and my official certificate will be winging its way to me late August. Himself ’surprised’ me with a card and swanky new hand mixer to mark the occasion. I exhausted my old one making fudge but that’s another story.

Am I glad I did it? Yes I am. I was skeptical at the start that online chocolatier’s course could really teach me. I did learn, but it was through a combination of course matierial, course deadlines, more than 6-8 hrs a week work and endless researching. Having the course forced me to focus, having the assignments gave me goals to achieve within a certain timeframe. Seeing the assignments of other students made me work harder to keep up.

It took longer than I thought for practice and study and I ended up taking the Flavor and Techniques Stream which focused more on production and less on Setting up a Business. I was disappointed that I could not take the Business Stream especially since it would have allowed me create marketing, operations and business plans. But, I started as a novice so I have come a long way … ‘Rome was not built in a day’ and I can study the business side on my own I’m sure.

The one invaluable resource was my online tutor. I had numerous email exchanges about fudge, tempering etc. I sent her photos of my disasters and she advised. There is a Chef’s Table where students can talk to each other and we were encouraged to share our assignments there. I found this very helpful because we could learn from each other. Students where from all around the world, from all ages and backgrounds so I did not feel at a disadvantage just because I am a software enginner with a chocolate hobby.

You get out what you put into this course.

.

Final Assignment All Done

I never thought I’d say this but I need a break from the chocolate kitchen. I’ve been working on my final assignment for the past 3 weeks making fudge, candied peel, gianduja, nut brittle, caramel, fondant; coating in different chocolates; decorating with different techniques; flavouring ganaches. Oh I need a chocolate free weekend! But just to be clear, I will be eating chocolate just not cooking ;-)

I never thought I’d be making such confections during a chocolate course but now I plan to incorporate them into my creations. I’m planning an orange truffle with candied peel and a nut brittle truffle.

The course does not officially end until July and I’ve still got lots of lectures to read through.

The highlight of the course was my mint cream with fondant made from scratch. I will blog some more about this later though.

Fathers Day

Yesterday was a sad day in my head but HoneyB kept me smiling. Anyway, what more suitable way to mark the day than by making caramel. (I would never have eaten the caramel in the box of Milk Tray … that was Dad’s favourite).

My first batch of caramel was a disaster … goodness me, I knew there was a danger of scorching, but I was amazed how quickly it happened. And what a mess to clean up. I ended up boiling the sticky utensils in the pot to remove the caramel.

Himself was very impressed with the caramel taste with Sumatra coffee (Starbucks) so I broke with tradition i.e. no coffee, and had a little espresso cup full.

Actually speaking of  the ‘bucks, kudos to Starbucks in Beacon South Quarter over the weekend for their most excellent ‘aroma lab’. They had 3 coffees up for tasting on three separate tables outside their cafe. On each table the coffee was surrounded by things it might taste/smell like, for example sliced oranges, nutmeg, cinnamon – excellent visual stimulus to help decipher the flavours.

Anyway back to the caramel:

Nuts!

OK, so my philosophy in the kitchen is cook what we enjoy eating. So why on earth have I made a batch of nut brittle? It’s not that it is awful … just hazardous to teeth. I was sure my dodgy back tooth was a gonner after the first taste.

I made this as part of my course assignment, which has me working on all sorts of filling to eventually be covered in chocolate: fondant, caramel, fudge, gianduja. There are two streams to the course and I have chosen the Flavours and Techniques stream (as opposed to the Business stream) because I felt it better to learn the techniques with an expert to hand. I hope I can muddle thru the business part on my ownie own.

Time is very tight with work, home life, course work … For me there are just Not Enough Hours and no man-off-the-telly can fix my time dilemma. Mind you, we did manage a great day out at Airfield House especially when we ended our picnic with a treat from Cupcake Cottage ;-)

Here are a few shots of a white chocolate gianduja truffle which Himself took.

My ‘brown’ zebras.

I made a mistake with these ones though in that I never waited for the filling to harden before pouring on the chocolate base. The results was a very thick base … but if ya like white chocolate then this should not be a problem ;-)

My First Molded Chocolates

Here are the results of a lot of hard work … raspberry truffles. There are so many steps to the process that it can hardly be done in one evening. I started at 8:30 just after HoneyB drifted off to sleep and did not finish until 11:30. I’m glad Himself was there to help with the washing up afterwards!

• Make the ganache and cool to room temperature (recipe below).
• Temper the white chocolate, divide into two batches coloring one batch with some with red (non-fat/oil based) food coloring.
• Drizzle/decorate the inside of the molds, let this harden.
• Temper the milk chocolate and fill the molds, let this harden.
• Pipe in the ganache filling.
• Pour more tempered chocolate to seal the truffles and leave to harden.

The most challenging part was keeping the chocolate in temper for that length of time. Now I know why tempering machines were invented!

From a distance they look lovely …

But up close the cracks (quite literally) appear:

I did not vibrate the mold enough and it resulted in trapped air bubbles between the two types of chocolate:

I piped too much ganache into the molds which meant the base did not completely adhere:

From now on they shall be known as ‘ghost molds’ because they instantly reminded Himself of the ghost characters in Pacman game:

Even Himself joined in the chaos-in-the-kitchen and rolled his own:

Raspberry Syrup

1 cup Sugar

1 cup water

1 pack (10oz) frozen raspberries

1. Stir the water and sugar in large saucepan over medium heat until sugar has dissolved. Continue cooking until the mixture thickens … for me this took 15 mins.

2. Stir in the frozen raspberries. Gradually bring it to the boil stirring until the syrup thickens slightly, about 10.

If you leave this to cool you are left with raspberry jam … so I suppose I can use raspberry jam in future ;-)

Dark Raspberry ganache

250g 70% chocolate (I used Callebaut)

1/2 cup single cream

1/2 cup raspberry syrup

3 tbsp butter

1 tbsp honey (optional depending on your taste)

1. Boil the cream and syrup then instantly remove from heat, strain and and let it cool to room temperature. If the syrup has already hardened then heat until the syrup is runny and mixed with the cream before boiling.

2. Melt the chocolate and beat in the butter until smooth. I used an electric hand mixer for this.

3. Then beat in the cream/raspberry mixture.

4. Taste, if you have not already ;-) , and add honey if required. Leave to cool to room temp.

White Raspberry ganache

As above with white chocolate and no honey.

Buying Chocolate in Bulk

This was the first weekend in a long time that the kitchen was not overflowing with some kinda chocolate experiment (good or bad!). My course work is keeping me busy and this weeks assignment has already been handed in! It was all about Sourcing Chocolate. I looked in Ireland at bulk chocolate suppliers: Pallas Foods, La Rousse and Odaios. They only deal with businesses and I am most definitely not in business (and if my sorry attempt ‘pate de fruit’ is anything to go by I never will be!).

Odaios supply my favourite Valrhona and you might think 3kg of Guanaja is a lot, but actually it is not. Sur’ HoneyB was 6lb 9oz (3kg) when she was born too.

The pistoles look a little battered and bruised but just look at how delicate and unblemished the Valrhona logo is ….

My Mum bought some Callebaut for me from Pallas Foods, then she explained, ‘yes you do have to pay VAT at 21%’. All 9kgs was delivered in style and perfectly cool by my little bro. The drops are very nibbly and are perfect for snacking. HoneyB loves getting a little mini bun case full of them, all different colors.

My research assignment did lead me to Vantage House and KeyLink in the UK which carry a few interesting brands. All the KeyLink prices include delivery too, UK VAT is only 15% and the exchange rate makes them very attractive.

Any tips on suppliers on the island, please let me know ….

Chocolate Covered Raisins

A birthday for a friend in work collided with a tempering exercise so I decided to dip some raisins into the tempered chocolate to make some nibbles. The result was pretty nice looking especially with the bigger sized raisins. After dipping around 10 raisins with a fork I started to get impatient so I put a teaspoon of tempered chocolate in my palm and rolled the raisins in it. Hey presto, I found myself going from first to fifth gear in no time ;-)